Fiber composite components as well as methods for manufacturing fiber composite components are well known from prior art. Fiber composite components are currently becoming increasingly important as lightweight structures in vehicle construction (including aircraft and spacecraft), for example.
In particular in order to develop larger lightweight structures, it is often required that several already cured fiber composite components be joined together later, which is also referred to as “structural bonding” or “secondary bonding”. This makes it relatively easy to also fabricate larger overall structures, e.g., aircraft fuselages or sections thereof.
Alternatively or additionally, it is often required that add-on components be attached to an already cured fiber composite component, which can also involve fiber composite components or other types of components (e.g., made of metal or plastic). In aircraft construction, e.g., in the aircraft fuselage area, such add-on components can in particular be frames, stringers, ribs, clips and the like, for example.
In aircraft construction, joints are currently being fabricated in the structural area by means of rivets, or by means of rivets with an additional adhesive. However, rivets require providing a minimum component thickness and drilling a hole. This is associated with a higher weight, damage to load-bearing fibers in the fiber composite component, and a drilling dust load (resulting in a risk of corrosion and short circuiting, for example).
For this reason, there may be a need that adhesive bonds in the future be increasingly realized at a later point, and here that the number of installed rivets be largely reduced, or that rivets be eliminated entirely.
However, the basic problem with the adhesive arrangement of the kind of interest here involves ensuring a sufficient residual strength given a partial failure of the bond (damage tolerance). Today, the rivet in question ensures the redundant load path.
There may be a need to indicate a new way to fabricate an adhesive arrangement for fiber composite components (i.e., with at least one bonding component being designed as a fiber composite component), in which an improved strength and reliability can be achieved.